in the land of tolerance and diversity

i saw a truck parked at a gas station with some interesting bumper stickers. one read "kill em' all. let allah sort them out." another read "work hard. millions on welfare depend on you." a third read "i love explosions." let's go through these one by one. the first sentiment is nothing less than advocacy of genocide. there are over a billion muslims on the planet living in all parts of the world. the statement is incredibly bigoted. imagine a guy with a long beard and head wrap with a bumper sticker that read "kill em' all. let jesus sort them out." i wonder how long this guy would remain standing? for you see, the fascists swing a little harder than us "radicals." what kind of a society is this where a person can put such things on their car without getting fucked up? and we wonder why "they" hate "us!" "we" analyze "their" religion, "their" culture, and "their" customs for signs of depravity and brutality, as "we" in the white west continue to kill "them" by the millions. and ironically, no one analyzes "our" religion or "our" culture for signs of depravity and brutality. "kill em' all?" em? not only must we be genocidal bigots, but we also must be prideful in our ignorace of proper grammar. something tells me that these stickers won't be coming off, even though the big o will soon be in power. i guess racism will have to end some other time.

what of the second sticker? i don't think this man was criticizing corporate welfare. i doubt he was angered by the hundreds of billions that were recently wasted on the financial sector, nor is he infuriated by the more than a trillion dollars that the war on iraq has cost. something tells me this man has an image of a certain kind of person on welfare, and it is likely this person's skin is just a little darker than his. never mind that more whites access welfare than anybody else. never mind that poor children, the disabled, and the elderly desperately need such support. no, this man didn't put a bumper sticker on his car about them. this man will happily fund our imperial conquests, seeing how he "loves explosions." by that, i think he means he loves them when others far away explode, not himself or his loved ones. he may not be thrilled if a bomb were to destroy his house, or kill his children. of course, the nazis only loved the concentration camps because others were dying in them.

this man, who wants to kill 1/6th of the human race, and see people explode, probably feels himself under attack. he likely longs for the good old days, when people worked, athletes didn't talk trash, women knew their place, and we were all patriotic lovers of our great nation. he wonders what has happened to the america he once loved. the sikh grocery owner and the indian doctor mock him with their presence, as he plots acts of murder to regain the joy that was white america. he only watches auto racing now, and only listens to country music. perhaps he only watches the christian network, for "they" control everything else. the man may even be stockpiling guns, for the federal government has long been in the hands of communists, jews, and blacks. he can't get a job. this is never his fault, nor does it say anything negative about our economic system. instead, it is the immigrants who are to blame. soon, to hear him tell it, we will all be speaking spanish, and sadly, no one will know how to speak "american" anymore.

yes, such a man has many thoughts and ideas. all of them are dead wrong, but since when did that matter? bush was dead wrong too, as was pinochet, hitler, the israeli militarists, and so many others. truth and decency have been fighting a losing battle for centuries. on one side we have the white supremacist patriots who long to continue the days of indian killing and church going. this group seems to have most of the weapons, control most of the media, and run most of the corporations. they are mainly pale, with a few darker people thrown in for surface purposes. they are driven by a lust for profits. they thirst for war and tax cuts. they kill with ease, all the while decrying the violence of their opponents, who they largely created by their actions.

so yeah, i didn't just see a few bumper stickers; rather, i saw an ongoing "civilization" of white supremacy, ignorance, and imperial arrogance.

i saw america, naked, without its superficial clothing, hiding its essential horror.

it's still there folks. it never went away.